Books to read this spring
With longer, warmer days, uplifting blooms, new releases and, perhaps, more bookshelf space (after all that spring cleaning), spring is a wonderful time to get lost in a good book. Check out the Kair team’s top picks for the fashion-conscious bibliophile, whether you’re interested in a designer’s rise to fame, the art of haute couture, or environmentalism.
Fashion Icons: Fashion Lives with Fern Mallis - Fern Mallis and Ralph Lauren
In this revealing and inspiring volume, Mallis, Godmother of Fashion and award-winning creator of New York Fashion Week, shares with us 19 no-holds-barred interviews with the fashion industry’s most talented, successful and legendary personalities, as well as exclusive designer sketches and memorabilia. The Q&A format combines the intimate approach of a tete-a-tete with the dynamics of a live audience, as the fashion luminaries provide a candid glimpse into the inner workings and culture of the fashion industry.
Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie - Julia Haart
A riveting, eye-opening memoir by one of the fashion industry’s most influential female entrepreneurs. Haart traces her path from an ultra-orthodox upbringing, and an arranged marriage, to housewife, shoe designer, and ultimately CEO and co-owner of modelling agency Elite World Group in an inspiring and empowering story of tenacity.
Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink - Véronique Hyland
This is a smart, incisive essay collection centred on the fashion industry, by Elle Magazine’s fashion features director. Tracking the evolution of style through various pivotal cultural and societal shifts throughout history, whilst also exploring the interconnection between dress and identity, Hyland’s debut is perfect for the book-lover-cum-fashionista.
Unraveled: The life and death of a garment - Maxine Bédat
This is a groundbreaking chronicle of the birth - and death - of a pair of jeans from manufacture to market. Both informative and penetrating, Bédat deftly exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and the alarming cost of the pursuit of mass-produced fashion, as well as our relationships both with each other and the planet.
Loved Clothes Last: How the Joy of Rewearing and Repairing Your Clothes Can Be a Revolutionary Act - Orsola de Castro
In this insightful yet practical guide, De Castro, co-founder of Fashion Revolution, underscores sustainable consumerism and the importance of buying better, caring more, and reducing your carbon footprint simply by making your existing, most-loved clothes last longer. A smart look at sustainable fashion from a fashion insider who knows her subject.
There you have our recommended reading list for this spring - just the thing to lavish your bookshelf with, whether you’re reading in the sunshine, or inside by a rainy window.
